I made this game this weeked for the Ludum Dare competition.More than 70% into it I was still convinced it wouldn't turn into a fun game at all, but eventually I managed to bring it all together.It's not a perfect game by any means, but I'm happy with it. =)

For the timelapse, I use a tool called "chronolapse". It was made by one of the people in the Ludum Dare competition.It spits out a bunch of png images, and I then process them with the command line tools from image magick, then convert them into an avi using mencode.

I ended up not dieing in one level, but not getting a key and just stood around. That's amazing you could do that in 48 hours. I can hardly do anything in that amount of time. The instructions came a little fast, maybe letting someone click after they read them on each level would have been better.

Once I get things figured out a little more in java, I want to cut my development time way down. Not enough for Ludum Dare because of the rules about not reusing code, but maybe a game every couple months.

What a fun game! I'm amazed you did it all in 18 hours! All the detail in the graphics, sounds, and brilliant game play! Excellent job! ...and one of the few games I actually made it all the way to the end.

For me, the trick to getting a game done that fast is to start by getting something playable as soon as possible. This doesn't mean it has to be a game in any way, but it has to be interactive. That way, I can start play testing immediately, and only add the stuff I feel is missing.

Like in this game, I made a white square move around in a black background (or the other way around?), and thought "You know, this character should really have some graphics", so I added it. And I kept going like that. Towards the end, I kind of realized I was running out of time, so I started doing things backwards. I started by adding an ending, then added stuff in the middle until they joined up.